REVIEW: ‘ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER’ (2025)

Yes, its word-of-mouth status as the best film of 2025 turns out to be right. One Battle After Another is a must-stream if you missed it on the big screen last year, like I did. It is such a blast that its effervescent, rollicking, turbo-charged American fiction epic seems to know no screen format. Even on your phone, you’ll be swept away by its unpredictable, hilarious political satire–slash–dark comedy.

Paul Thomas Anderson is still on top of his game with this nearly three-hour, absorbing present-day story that is both unhinged and thematically rich. It is more comedy than adventure, driven by rigorously conceived set pieces and a luminous ensemble cast.

Loosely inspired by the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, the film follows Leonardo DiCaprio as former “war hero” Bob Ferguson, battling one crisis after another in an effort to reunite with his daughter Willa (newcomer Chase Infiniti), who has been taken by the villainous Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn).

The problem is that it has been more than a decade since Bob’s active revolutionary days with his now-disappeared lover, Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), and their far-left revolutionary group, French 75. 

When Lockjaw’s gang disrupts his quiet life, Bob is caught inept and unprepared. Unlike his “Viva la revolución!” days, he is now a flabby, doting dad living off the grid in woody Baktan Cross, sustained by paranoia and weed.

Anderson does not bother with the specifics of French 75 because that is not the point. The satire paints America as what it is — and continues to be — in a wildly entertaining manner. The pacing is flawless, the writing biting, with an acerbic wit that often left me breathless from wheezy laughter, one after another.

It’s hard not to laugh consistently at Bob — his tiny ponytail, flannel robe, and brain-fogged decisions — as he clumsily and panickily tries to rescue Willa without a moment’s hesitation. Taylor’s Perfidia, although present only in the film’s opening minutes, is equally ostentatiously delightful as a sexy anarchist: intoxicated, erotically charged, leaving Lockjaw obsessed and permanently stuck in foreplay.

As the film cleaves into sections of action-adventure, we meet Sergio St. Carlos, an uproariously deadpan Benicio del Toro as Willa’s karate sensei, who also runs a covert passage system for immigrants. His Zen demeanor (“ocean waves, ocean waves”) is a riotous contrast to DiCaprio’s keyed-up, adrenaline-driven portrait of a fearful father to a teenage girl.

Sean Penn, as Lockjaw, is one of the most memorable nemeses in recent years. His perpetual blue balls and obsession with Perfidia collide with his neo-Nazi sensibilities. He drools with ambition to be accepted into the Christmas Adventurers Club, a Christian white supremacist organization of aging men. It is mordantly funny how Penn, in his fitted black shirt and old-man, steroidal muscular physique, remains singularly focused on redeeming his sense of white supremacy as he hunts for Willa.

Anderson, one of the most versatile directors behind some of Hollywood’s greatest films, clearly had fun writing and filming this, along with his terrific cast. The result is a film of impeccably controlled chaos — darkly funny, perfectly paced, and anchored by a top-notch camera philosophy that avoids ornamental pretentiousness altogether. That California desert road sequence is among the best set pieces in recent memory.

Sweeping the “Big Four” critics awards — Best Picture from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Board of Review, National Society of Film Critics, and New York Film Critics Circle — is no small feat. At the recently concluded 83rd Golden Globe Awards, the film won Best Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress, among the most wins of the night. Easily 2025’s best and one of the decade’s standouts.

5 out of 5 stars
Stream on HBO Max